


Perfect Family

by Jinx (jinx37kat)



Category: The OC
Genre: Gen, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-13
Updated: 2005-10-13
Packaged: 2018-06-06 00:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6728593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinx37kat/pseuds/Jinx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watching a perfect family that doesn't include you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfect Family

Seth stood in the shadows between the lit kitchen and the darkened living room… watching. He watched as his parents and Ryan communed around the kitchen island, removing take-out boxes, plastic utensils, napkins and condiments from large brown paper bags, situating everything in the center of the island. They were laughing and joking around. The perfect picture of the perfect family. A picture that did not include Seth… and never would. 

It was a picture that really never included him in the first place. Even before Ryan came along. The only difference was, that now, his parents seemed happier, more relaxed. Probably because they had someone who they could be a real family with… someone who could be a real son. 

Not that Seth wasn’t real family. Of course he was. He was their son after all. But his parents found something in Ryan that they never could or would have with Seth. And Seth wasn’t bitter about this… about losing his place in his family. He wasn’t bitter because he really never had a place to begin with. Even with his own parents, he had been an outsider… someone who never really fit in.

But Ryan… Ryan was different. Ryan fit in. Ryan had a place within the family that Seth never would.

First there was his mom…

In Ryan, Kirsten found a son who was truly interested in what she did for a living. Seth remembered Vegas night a few months ago. Ryan had only been with them for a few days… a week at the most and Ryan had made the mistake of asking Kirsten what she did for a living. And although Seth was busy counting chips for the roulette table, he saw his mom’s eyes sparkle with enthusiasm at being able to talk to someone about her career. Seth remembered scoffing and moving away when his mom teased him about not being interested in her business; about having fallen sleep when she tried to explain to him what she did. 

But Ryan wouldn’t fall asleep. He was just as enthused about architecture and the building of buildings as his mom. They were a match made in Newport.

Then there was his dad…

In Ryan, Sandy found that rebel boy that he’d had been once when Sandy had been a young man. He found an equal, if you will. Someone who had come from the wrong side of the tracks and would show these Newport socialites that not everything good came from money.

Sandy also found in Ryan the son whom he could support in sports events at school. And while Ryan wasn’t involved all that much, he did end up joining the soccer team; and Sandy had been to each and every game since. Up to and including some, if not all, of Ryan’s practice games. As Seth made his way home after school some nights, he could remember seeing his father in the bleachers rooting for Ryan even if Ryan was just running practice drills.

Sandy never did that with Seth. 

But, then again, one really couldn’t scream a rally cry for getting your shoes peed in or getting your ass kicked by the water polo team.

Seth’s mind returned to the present as he continued to watch his family get ready for dinner. 

There, in the kitchen, stood the perfect Cohen family. 

Perfect Newport Mom. 

Perfect Loving Dad. 

Perfect Son for both of them.

And no where was there room for Seth. Because he wasn’t perfect. He never would be. But he certainly wouldn’t begrudge Ryan this family. If anyone deserved it, it was Ryan. 

Seth couldn’t imagine growing up with an alcoholic mom who brought home different men every other night and who would allow said men to beat the crap out of you all the time. 

And Ryan had just made one mistake. ONE mistake. But thankfully Sandy was there to make things better.

His dad had opened up their house, their hearts, to a troubled young man and paved the way to get said troubled teen on the path of the straight and narrow.

And it wasn’t as if Ryan had pushed Seth aside and forced himself in Seth’s place. Seth knew that Ryan had no intension of replacing Seth in his parents’ lives. He only wanted to be a part of the family. It wasn’t Ryan’s fault that Seth never really fit in to begin with. It wasn’t Ryan’s fault that Seth was already an outsider in his own family unit.

So Seth watched from the shadows, with a small sad smile, as his family… as that family got ready for dinner.

There was no place for him here and while his heart hurt with the knowledge, he was also okay with it. This new family was meant to be. And there was no room in the new family for him. And that was okay.

Hefting the over-burdened pack on his back and tucking his skateboard under his arm, Seth turned and quietly left the big mansion by the sea.

It was time to take that pancake tour of North America anyway.

 

Finis  
10/13/05


End file.
